Download a copy of Derek Gripper’s latest album, One Night on Earth: Music from the Strings of Mali for a price of your choice here.
For over ten years solo acoustic guitarist Derek Gripper has produced a host of visionary musical works by fusing Africa’s disparate creative traditions with styles throughout the world, creating a classical guitar music that is uniquely his own.
His 2011 album, The Sound of Water, received this praise from Guitar International: ”a remarkable record by Gripper that showcases his extraordinary abilities as a composer, arranger and performer. With such a strong release, it is only a matter of time before Gripper becomes recognized across the globe for his contributions to modern guitar performance and composition.”
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Derek Gripper’s transcriptions and performances of the music of African musicians like Malian virtuosos Toumani Diabate, Ballake Sissoko, and Ali Farka Toure, have created an entirely new repertoire for the African Guitar, as well as creating the first ever classical guitar repretoire from the rich and diverse West African musical tradition.
The music of Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Egberto Gismonti is some of the most original, diverse and emotive music of our time. Derek Gripper has been transcribing Egberto Gismonti’s works for six-string guitar, creating a host of avant garde guitar works that evoke the traditions of minimalism, contemporary classical composition, jazz, African music and Brazilian folk traditions. In this sense Gripper’s arrangements of Gismonti’s guitar compositions reminds us that Gismonti is the Brazilian guitar’s new Heitor Villa Lobos.
Derek Gripper’s unique Montessori Guitar method translates the educational philosophy of Maria Montessori into a method for teaching guitar at all levels, from beginner to advances, child to adult. The method includes a unique set of Montessori materials for guitar teachers or Montessori teachers wishing to include guitar in the traditional Montessori environment, as well as an interpretation of traditional classical guitar works suitable for all levels of players.
This website contains the full collection of solo and collaborative recordings by Derek Gripper. They can be downloaded for free, ordered in New Cape Record’s retro CD packages, or streamed in full directly from the bandcamp page.
Derek Gripper’s published scores of his own compositions, as well as his arrangements of music by Brazilian composer Egberto Gismonti, Malian composers Toumani Diabate, Ballake Sissoko and Ali Farka Toure, and more are all available in guitar tablature and staff notation on this site. New scores are being added regularly so keep checking in to see what’s in.